On 2005-10-19 14:40:00, Antigen wrote:
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On 2005-10-19 10:42:00, Anonymous wrote:
The good places I was at called themselves RTC's (residential treatement centers).
Please explain; which places and what was good about them?Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?
--Arthur C. Clarke, author
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Those anon posts before were mine (a couple at least) Im gunna sign in because it's getting confusing.
Hmm.. I wish I could remember the exact name of the place... but it was a group home type thing run by the state. There were only 2 of us per room, we could keep personal posessions (cd player, books, magazines, etc). Parents came and visited everyday, and we had family therapy everyday. (that helped a lot) There was a real school we went to during the day, and afternoons were spent doing physical activity. In comparison WWASP programs had NO therapy, NO real school, and you all know the deal about not seeing your parents for a couple years. It wasn't helpful at all, it was a very sad time in my life. Before I get off track with the bad programs, another good one I had attended was day treatment at the local psychiatric hospital run by Sharp Hospital. You have to get your insurance to pay for that place, but man, is it well worth it. I am 100% anti-wwasp and anti-program, but I have to say, the inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care was top notch! The counselors there were awesome and really cared. Your parents came and visited everyday for an hour. You had access to a psychiatrist, therapist, and all sorts of therapy groups. The one drawback was the amount of medication they put some kids on , including me. I was so high on anti-anxiety and anti-psychotics I was in somewhat of a blur, but whatever. I wasn't doing drugs and was quite happy. Hell, if I could of stayed at that place until I turned 18 I would have, I liked it that much. These places were in san diego, CA (sharp) and Ramona, ca (rtc).
WWASP on the other hand.. don't know where to start. No help, no nothing... just 'get in line' and keep your mouth shut for months and months. The place was a shithole. It was obvious they were reeming our parents, and it made us all kind of sad. One of my friends there just received a letter from his parents saying they were mortgaging the house to keep him there longer. He knew he wasn't getting help, and he felt really bad for his parents spending all their hard earned money. It's a very sad situation for all involved with some of the bad programs, it really is.
All I can say, is in my experience, local is better. You need the parent around to really help the problem I think, it helped me out a lot.
The fucked up thing is, I could have stayed at the program in Ramona, but my dad came with all these fancy brochures from Spring Creek lodge and I thought it would be MORE FUN! LOL They had pictures of canoes, and mountains and stuff. Too bad we never got to see those. It was a prison camp... we had no freedom of movement whatsoever. Not to mention the 28 days I spent in the hobbit for not complying with the mind warping. I was old enough to know what was going on and wouldn't reveal anything juicy enough in front of the seminar group (I really had nothing.. never been molested or anything dramatic... I really had nothing to say) but that wasn't good enough, so they thought I was lying. This happened every time seminars came around.. spending 5 days straight in the hobbit fucking sucks. I still have nightmares about that place and it's been 5+years. It's scary these places still exist.
Anyways, that's some of my experience, trying to answer your question Antigen. I definitely have been through a couple 'programs' *I hesitate to call them that* that were extremely helpful. But they were in a completely differtent context than the shitholes discussed on this forum. These places were approved by my medical insurance. Spring creek wasn't. I wonder why? :wink:
